Rainy day delights.
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]
The Delhi Walla suggests places in the city where you can best experience the monsoon season.
Go to the 14th century Hauz Khas monument complex in the south. With interlinked chambers and balconies, the ruins offer an unhindered view of Deer Park and the Hauz Khas lake. Hear the squawking of ducks and the cry of peacocks. While in the locality, try the Bhutanese cuisine at the Yeti: The Himalayan Kitchen restaurant (50-A, Second floor, Hauz Khas Village; tel: 66487668). Its balcony (for smokers) looks on to the lake. Or dig into smoked pork with roasted bamboo shoots in Dzukoü (13-A, rooftop, Hauz Khas Village; tel: 9873306171), a Naga speciality restaurant. Situated on the third and fourth floors, it overlooks the fountains of the lake. Whether it is raining or not, the restaurant remains deliciously breezy.
Take a ride in DTC bus No. 620, which starts from Shivaji Stadium and ends in Hauz Khas. The bus passes through the best parts of Delhi, which look dream-like in the rain. Sit by the window as you go past the Connaught Place Outer Circle, Jantar Mantar, India Gate Circle, Teen Murti roundabout, Shantipath, the National Rail Museum and the hill-top Malai Mandir.
Pakodas (fritters) are the classic rainy season finger food. Drop by at Khandani Pakodiwalla at the Ring Road-Sarojini Nagar intersection, near the Bhikaji Cama flyover. They sell 11 varieties, including cauliflower, lotus root, spinach, potato, green chilli, onion, paneer (cottage cheese) and bread. Have it with their biting mint chutney. Eat in your car or outside the shack, next to the cooks who keep frying the fritters from 9am-9pm, daily of course.
In the north, Majnu Ka Teela has a secret. Most Delhiites look on it as the place where you get the most authentic momos. Not many know that this Tibetan refugee settlement overlooks the Yamuna on one side. The stretch is behind a lane of cafés. Go there and enjoy the river flowing tantalizingly close.
The breezy Tea Terrace at the Triveni Art Gallery at Mandi House in central Delhi serves good food, along with a view of the adjacent amphitheatre. Nibble on their delicate shami kebabs (which are surprisingly, and happily, not so oily) as the spray of shower wets your sleeves. Make sure to have the delicious carrot walnut cake. The good thing is that the service is extremely slow, so you get more time to enjoy the rainy day experience.
The Teen Murti Bhavan museum was Jawaharlal Nehru’s official residence. As the overcast sky turns dark, climb the museum’s stately stairs, walk past the coffee-coloured wooden shelves filled with old books and look into the drawing rooms and bedrooms of our first prime minister. All the time, you can see the rain falling outside the giant windows. The gardens, both at the front and the back, teem with peacocks at this time of the year. If it is merely drizzling, sit on a bench outside, or have chai (tea) at Teen Murti’s lovely canteen—a thick cover of trees shields the courtyard from the showers. Look out for peacocks. They might slip under your table.
Go to Indian Coffee House (tel: 23342994) on Baba Kharak Singh Marg, Connaught Place, if it is not raining hard. Sit on the terrace for an unconventional view of Connaught Place: back alleys, dope addicts and lots of monkeys. Ask for a cucumber sandwich and steaming hot tea.
Walking in the narrow streets of Shahjahanabad, or Old Delhi, is not easy during the monsoon. But you can always go and sit in the balcony of Haji Hotel in Matia Mahal bazaar. Mira Nair shot a few scenes of her new film, A Reluctant Fundamentalist, at this venue. The balcony offers a spectacular view of Jama Masjid. If you talk politely, the owner, an extremely refined gentleman, will offer you tea and fresh hot biscuits from a wood-fired bakery nearby.
Go to Urs Mahal, next to Mirza Ghalib’s tomb in Nizamuddin Basti. It is an assembly hall edged with lovely stone pillars where you can read a book and watch the showers out in the open courtyard. Also go to the dargah of Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. It is an intense feeling to look at the dark clouds closing in over the sacred dome.
If you don’t mind getting wet in the rain, head to the India Gate maidan. Eat bhutta (corn), have ice cream, buy a balloon, lie on the grass, or take a boat ride.
Delhi’s monsoon delights
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Soofi, I cannot describe in words how much I miss my dilli’s rain ,forts and its organized chaos as i read your piece and see your vivid Delhi photos at my East Coast campus dorm room. Yearning to hear familiar names like south ex , cp(seepee), nizamuddin ,Karim’s rather than Silver Spring, Mt Vernon, Safeway,Wendy’s that i have been hearing of late in DC-Baltimore.
Keep your topical articles coming
-from a pucca dilli walla who is no longer her resident.
picture no. 1 is glorious! I love that kind of weather. Dark,rain-laden clouds looming low over the horizon. It is this seemingly menacing aspect that must have moved the classical poets of India to compare such clouds to herds of elephants.
I love circling around India Gate in a car or bus on a rainy day…..
It looks simply soothing….
wow wow wow good one.Rab Rakha
<3
hey,, not really a comment, but i just really wanted to know where this ‘the book shop’ is located. thank you.
The Book Shop, Jor Bagh Market.
Ahh!!…sad to be so far away from home…what a lovely day..i rmbr spending an af’noon on the Cafe Turtle terrace in Khan mkt…cold coffee…and rains…Just perfect!…never visited teen murti..will do on my next visit! tks.
Im miss Delhi and its distinct seasons. Living now in UK, all we have is year-round cold, damp, windy weather with an oocasional bout of sunshine with clouds! Having distinct seasons makes one yearn for and appreciate esch season. Alas I only have myself to blame
Please mind my typos!
Not from Delhi but religiously follow your blog. Was literally left breathless by the end of this piece, suddenly and forcefully yearning to be transported from my cubicle in Midwest US to the streets of Karachi …
Keep on writing !
Jay